Duality.
The highlighting of two distinct sides, good and evil, positive, and negative… black and white, has been such an ingrained idea for so long, and that runs so deep, most of us take it for face value. Accepting that it is just the way things are, and with a world that is creating more and more boxes to be labelled, with the bold pen of unquestioning and pressure to choose which box you inhabit, like a cat eager to pounce into that comforting space, looking over the edge wide eyed and with trepidation…it may be time to look back to the ancient world for guidance.
What if everything around us… “just is” …
A beast with so many heads, a ruby with so many faceted sides, that even definition of a “side” is hard to truly outline. Of course, duality has its own place, the age old, above so below, the coming together of the masculine and the feminine in alchemical perfection and creation…the sun and the moon.
Those dualities and the magical significance they hold, are endless.
But, somewhere between the two distinct sides, there is the heavy fog that is nuance, there is something so ancient, that it transcends the largely Abrahamic ideology, that good and evil is in this endless battle for supremacy. It is rather clever after all, to be fearful of the bad man lurking in the shadows, to plant the seed of fear into humanity from birth, that suffering will transcend this lifetime and continue into the next life, a life that will be eternal.
This deep need for distinct sides is not limited to Abrahamic beliefs, during the Amarna period in Egypt, the ruler Akhenaten, seemingly overnight, ordered that his people abandon their closely held personal deities, to erase their names from temples, to be replaced by the one God, Aten.
To go from polytheism to monotheism, will always bring a new level of control, of the attempt at simplifying a complex world, and for what?
For women worshiping Tarwaret during the quiet spaces between the throws of contractions in childbirth, that all-consuming pain, which has no words adequate enough to describe it, a pain so mighty that the spirit leaves the body and walks in another world…a masculine all seeing God just will not suffice.
What of the God Bes? Who not only also protects women in pregnancy and childbirth but is a fixture in the celebration and enjoyment of life. Every deity has their place, a purpose, and they are not either good or evil, they have many facets, just like that ruby, glistening in the sun.
Just as another Egyptian goddess for protection of women and children, Sekhmet, not only wraps her arms in embrace to keep her worshipers safe, but also extends them out, with weapons for war.
What are the implications, of turning our backs on so many gods and goddesses, ignoring so many spirits, forgetting our ancestors, and seeing them as nothing more than dust, as a flame that has been put out at death, rather than energy shapeshifting? each has their own place, interacting with humans, interacting with those still on this plain. They have been banished from being interwoven into everyday life, and I cannot help but wonder if their erasure has created a mundane world? where many, especially in these times, have started shifting into an almost nihilistic existence.
Some of you may have started thinking that what I am writing is nonsense, after all, is the absolute denial of magic, not the norm now? Something to be laughed at, something that only the people of the unexplained world believed.
But let me come back with this.
That little black mirror in your pocket, the politics you follow, the boxes you place yourself in… money… they are your new gods, they are your religion. The fear and punishment elements are not the Abrahamic versions of hell, or being thrust back into reincarnation, but it is being socially ostracised, “cancelled”, and with the unquantified wave of technological surveillance and currency on the threshold… it would seem no different to the periods of domination and oppression of the past.
It is now just much harder to hide, much harder to remove yourself… you are no different from the people of the past, and I will repeat again.
These are your new gods… let that sink in.
Your guides are now personalities on social media and sports people, your healers are now big pharma and psychologists/psychiatrists with no real expertise to guide you on anything more, than what they have been taught, from what textbooks they worship, and the rules by which they must abide.
Does it all not seem a little superficial?
I have heard recently that Australia is legalising psychedelics for some mental health conditions, and my immediate thoughts always naturally shift to, the absurdity of criminalising naturally growing plants (when speaking of mushrooms and the like), but also the dangers of placing ancient medicine in the hands of clinically trained people, the dangers of removing the healer.
You cannot say that a ritualistic medicine is illegal one day, and then say it can be used with permission, under approved circumstances, most likely for an exorbitant fee and under the supervision of those “authorised” …those are not the laws in which these medicines abide, it is to remove the spiritual element all together.
The irony of attempting to heal, and yet also contributing to the problem.
Those who know me well, know that I reference the period from 2020 to 2022 in Western Australia a lot, where our premier was held in almost God like status, where he was the benevolent all-seeing God… and “the virus” was the bad man hiding around the corner, in fact, anyone who opposed him was classed as evil, as wishing death on their neighbours.
It was interesting but also deeply concerning to see the ferocity in which people were defending this man, who’s ego was becoming unpalatable, a man who forgot that he serves the people. Women were gushing over his sexiness, which I translated as some primal attraction to power with a dose of internalised misogyny, and men were getting actual tattoos of him.
How is this any different from temple worship, how is this different from those same ancient Egyptian women who revere the God Bes, tattooing him on their inner thigh for protection?
It is different because the power dynamics make room for tyranny…it creates the pressure to choose a side, to forget complexity.
He became beyond reproach, beyond questioning, and that is extremely dangerous territory. Punishment for doing so, was not limited to the social ostracising mentioned earlier, but threats of actual violence, and accusations of siding with the great “evil” at the time…not to mention the choices between losing your body autonomy, or losing your ability to provide your family with food and shelter, doesn’t it look extreme now that the wave of fear has settled?
People lost all reason, so fearful, so trigger happy with their venom, that they would not even listen to the “enemy” try to reason with them, and the crowd driven by fear, were loud…they were aggressive…and many of them now, are most likely quite ashamed of themselves now that the veil has been lifted.
Does this not bare resemblance to witch trials?
Where are the deities that exist beyond choosing a side? That oppose the othering born of two distinct forces.
It is no secret that this serves a purpose for control, for easy manipulation, even those who do not actively see it, must feel it in their bones. I am not just referring to the spread of Abrahamic religions sweeping the world, forcing the old gods and goddesses into hiding, or of politics, and technology, but also of the so called open minded free thinkers, the alternative crew, the new age … they are just as guilty, and aim to put themselves in a position far from questioning, because to do so, would make the questioner a target, and one that has the collective voice of pack instinct and desperation for belonging, thrown at them, with no room to reason, no room for an open dialogue.
I find in inherently hard, to see anything as simple, as purely good, and evil, because those states can be transient, I have forgiven people who have done horrible things to me, not because I have not seen the situation for what it was, but because of the complexity of life and of people… I will just keep them at a safe distance and remember that once a dog bites me, it may do so again.
Sometimes people, gods and goddesses, the universe…” just is.”
The Nordic Völva, seeresses and respected weavers of magic, did not see the worlds in black and white, in good or evil, the forces are energy, the magic is malleable, it is what is done with it, the intent, which determines it.
In those ancient times, for seeresses the most revered fur colour and pattern in cats, was black and white…why? Because it symbolised the intertwining of magic both “light” and “dark,” there really was no definition between the two.
Just as those who channel this magic on the request of others, are just conduits between the seen and the unseen, they are neither good nor evil, no matter what work they have been asked to perform. Imagine a scenario where the medalling of outcomes, saves one, or benefits one, but causes harm to, or disadvantages the other… how can, as the new age like to word it, the positive be sifted from the negative?
Do they not see that throwing devils bit root on the fire, to send ill-intent back to the sender, is also a form of harm? Depending on the lens in which the situation is viewed.
The choosing of sides is not the only by-product of this narrow thinking, but the strangeness of attempting to eliminate all pain and suffering from one’s life, of denying that darkness has a place, is to deny us of lessons and appreciation.
I have had many offers to remove so called “negative” energy from my home, with the generic mass ideas of burning San Palao, and other such appropriated rituals that are not that relevant in this context, but touted relentlessly on social media, and monetised spaces for the occult and spirituality.
Why would I do such a thing… I like my home just fine, if spaces like this are confronting for others, that is their work to be done, not my space that needs to be “cleansed”. The comments about my home have been prevalent since I moved in.
I live directly on a crossroad, something associated with liminal spaces. my neighbour told me as soon as I moved in, that no-one stays here long, and the house has sat vacant for a very long time before I made it my home. When I first started moving in my belongings, I had to come at night, and the presence here was overwhelming, it felt like the house was almost its own living, breathing entity.
The back door had a huge hole in it, that was yet to be repaired, with the rain and wind howling through, slamming doors, and blowing leaves through the hallway. The yard is vast and huge, with giant trees and the remnants of an old path flanked by two massive jade plants, a path that goes no-where, and was most likely part of the original house, long demolished.
It is pure blackness in that yard, and many people have told me they feel like they are being watched, even the biggest of sceptics. I have had friends and visitors alike tell me they feel uneasy in the same space in my home, and it has been brought up many times, without even being on the topic… to the point that I have had people refuse to sleep in my home, or request to sleep in a different area.
I had one friend who would make a point of cleansing anything he received from my home, something that used to make me laugh a little.
Even during what was the only professional tarot reading I ever received from another person, she moved away the entire reason I were there, to tell me I needed to cleanse my home, and that I lived on a crossroad…she could just feel it.
I did not cleanse my home.
On the darker end of the spectrum, many years ago, I witnessed someone disappear from a gathering and have a severe episode in the depths of my yard, where someone else had pointed out an area they were deeply uncomfortable with, and he was having a dialogue with himself that looked like a deep dark night of the soul.
My favourite would be a Japanese friend of mine, one of the most loving and softest people I have had the pleasure of knowing, came to visit, he walked in, looked around my whole home in silence, before saying…
The only space I like is your kitchen, with his back turned to me as he looked out the kitchen window. He felt everything else was “just wrong.”
There are too many situations and stories like these to even recount, and even my partner is so used to this place now, he will sometimes ask me “Jess, why are their shadows walking up and down the hallway again?” as if it were the most normal thing in the world…and to me it is.
This need to abolish all perceived “darkness” and only let in the “light” is not the way… I assume it has gained popularity, again because it is the loudest voice in new age circles, and if you really investigate the core of it, often it is someone selling something, or providing some service or another, whether the payment is monetary or to serve the ego.
We can ask these forces to stay or leave depending on what is happening, but they do have a place, they do have a purpose, they are required to be there when the time is right.
This lightwashing of magic and even altered-state journeys, is silencing, superficial and has very little to offer in terms of knowing much more than the ego…nothing of value can come from suppression.
Now, I realise it looks like I am bashing monotheism, technology, modern medicine, and the new agers, and it many ways … that would be accurate.
But all I am saying is that all these ideas and practices can co-exist, any magician worth their salt, knows that what is collectively focused on, is brought to life and given power, so to completely deny the power of any ideology is not wise.
Even science.
Which seems to be the new Abrahamic religion, at top of the pyramid of power, and without question, but what I think many feverous followers of the cult forget, is that science is ever changing, ideas must be open to questioning, they must not be free from criticism, the followers are also some of the most aggressive, the most patronising and get the loudest and most offended when an open dialogue is attempted with them.
They believe that their God, is never wrong, and the only true path…look familiar?
I believe all of these ideas and beliefs have their own benefits, as long as they are not actively seeking to silence and cause harm to another, for instance modern medicine and science has a place (The occult and science have always overlapped at certain points), great discoveries and innovations can be used to save lives, but ironically the clinical and condescending realm it lives in, can also cause great sickness to the spirit…do you follow?
I feel concern for new and young practitioners of the occult, who would be drawing a lot of references and knowledge from places like Instagram, new age bookstores and the internet, for a variety of reasons. Obviously, there is the issue of monetization mentioned earlier, which now that society has deemed the occult trendy, has given way to mass produced occult themed clothing, witchcraft products, witch influencers, and a real focus on the aesthetic rather than the practice itself, which is more often than not a very solitary life.
It has born retreats marketed as spiritual awakenings, lessons in alchemy, and the dreaded “Shaman courses” everything you can think of, using esoteric words like confetti, and lessening their meaning, making them nothing more than a product to be consumed, by those hungry for purpose and a path.
Just call it what it is, a feel-good holiday, an aesthetic product, an ego stroker.
I am not saying this is all an entirely new thing, but in the past, little bookstores selling occult items were tucked away, there was no large platform for practitioners to be filming and photographing their rituals (that is a whole other conversation), and people felt the calling to study, because of a lived experience…not because it was in vogue.
I am quite sad to see it become another label, I will be honest, and for the up-and-coming practitioners, they will be more exposed to the aesthetic, and the bombardment of words and information, than they will be by actual practice. They will not know those isolated moments, reckonings, realizations, visions, and hard lessons brought only by being alive, testing the waters and being truly present.
Most will not even have the opportunity to be alone, far from any other human, point of contact, or dwelling…alone in a space where the concepts of animism become loud and evident with every differing sound of the wind in the trees.
That is very sad indeed.
While out recently, my partner pointed out a magazine, right next to all the lollies, placed right at the cashier, to entice children and breaking their mothers down to submission.
It was a witchcraft magazine, and he loudly proclaimed “Oh look! Is that not what you write about!” My slow-motion glare in his direction probably already told him that I had noticed it already and was having an inner dialogue about it. Again, these magazines are not new, I remember seeing them at my tiny country town newsagency in the late 90’s when Fiona Horne and Wicca was a big deal, and I begged my mother to buy me one every now and then.
I noticed even as a child that the lightwashing was heavy, and I did not resonate with the ideas of Wicca very much, but even back then when we were on the tail end of the “Satanic Panic” white witchcraft, as it is dubbed, was seen as quite the threat.
It is not so much the superficial aspect that is concerning, but the condensing down of sacred information, that study should be given time… the study of plants, divination techniques, deities, ancient scripture…it all takes time. It cannot be put into dot form like a recipe from a cookbook, and not so much because people will be summoning dark forces, but because it is lessoning the meaning of sacred information.
The very meaning if the word esoteric, is that the knowledge is for the initiated, it is information that only a small select number of people will understand. Is that not an incredibly powerful word? And yet I saw it used the other day for the name of a gym…
These powerful words are being thrown around by those who have no true idea of their meaning, if they did, they would never use them to sell a product, or name a business.
This is evident in what this whole piece is about…the idea of two sides, the idea of good and evil, negative, and positive, black, and white. Esoteric knowledge just doesn’t fall into those boxes.
I have even seen the term “Grey magic” … what about this.
It “just is”.
